Arriving by air using a motorized thermal paraglider, two Greenpeace activists landed on the roof of a building usually used for European Central Bank press conferences in Frankfurt, Germany.
They then unfurled a huge yellow banner that read: “Stop funding climate killers”.
[BREAKING] Paragliding activists land on @ECB ahead of governing council meeting to expose continued support for # FossilFuels. # ClimateEmergencyhttps: //t.co/o5f51pTgqM
- Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) March 10, 2021
This action comes as the environmental NGO denounces in a report published on Wednesday the policy of private debt buybacks carried out by the ECB, which includes 300 billion euros of securities issued by more than 60 companies using fossil fuels, including Shell , Total, Eni, OMV and Repsol.
Last year in the midst of a pandemic, the ECB launched a vast debt buyback program.
This primarily concerns the debts of States but also of several private companies.
However, for Greenpeace, the ECB should rather support companies that will promote the transition to renewable energies.
The NGO had already denounced this policy in October.
Legal action this Thursday in another case
On the side of the ECB, we reject these accusations.
"Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in this century" and the ECB "is helping the response as part of its mandate as a central bank, acting in concert with those responsible for climate policy, ”said a spokesperson.
And to add that President Christine Lagarde wishes to integrate this issue into the vast strategic review of the ECB's mandate launched shortly after her arrival at the head of the institution at the end of 2019. But the pandemic has postponed this work to the second half of the year. of this year.
In another register, Greenpeace and five other associations are contesting Thursday in court the prefectural authorization to operate the La Mède refinery, in Chateauneuf-les-Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhône) from the oil giant Total, to whom they blame the import of palm oil, synonymous with deforestation according to NGOs.
The appeal which will be studied by the administrative court of Marseille was filed in July 2018 by Greenpeace, France nature environnement (FNE), FNE Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, FNE Bouches-du-Rhône, the League for the protection of birds Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur and Friends of the Earth.
It concerns the authorization granted to one of the largest biofuel refineries in Europe.
In 2015, Total launched, in conjunction with the government of the day, the conversion of its crude oil refinery at La Mède, which was in deficit, into an agrofuel refinery, preserving 450 jobs.
The group has obtained authorization to import 300,000 tonnes of palm oil for this, to the chagrin of NGOs for whom this contributes to deforestation, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia, also provoking the anger of French farmers.
